Cooking Kids

As part of assignments, the kids have been busy in the kitchen. Yesterday they made wonderful Banana Muffins. They were a great hit! The recipe was in one of the recent Family Fun Magazines. The kids enjoyed them so much I think they'll be trying another recipe very soon.

We also finished up our study on Monks. The boys made a lentil soup similar to what the monks would have eaten daily. We also had bread with it. We learned that monks would have bread often, but only on special holidays like Christmas would they be able to enjoy it topped with butter. That was hard for the kids to imagine.

We also learned that in order to be a monk one had to give up all worldly treasures. The one thing they did have and treasure was a small wooden cross. The kids and I discussed giving up worldly treasures. All agreed it would be hard for us to give up everything and live that life of simplicity.

Something About Pride Coming Before The Fall

What's that saying about "Pride Coming Before The Fall?" The other day I was at a friend's house and she was sharing about how an exterminator was coming to her home because they have a mouse problem. I listened to her story and proudly thought, "I'm so glad WE don't have THAT problem."

I should have known I shouldn't have even let that thought cross my mind. Remember the saying, "Take every thought captive."

Well, long story short...Our oldest son stashed a pack of gum in a secret drawer. Yesterday he went to retrieve his gum and instead he found a shredded wrapper and NO gum. He thought for sure our youngest had swiped it and stashed it again in her secret spot. I went to check out the evidence and knew immediately what had happened. We investigated further and found the individual Bubble Yum pieces in DIFFERENT drawers to the side of the initial location. WE HAVE A MOUSE OR WORSE YET...MICE!!

Sweet Hub and I set some traps, and yes used Bubble Yum as bait (forget cheese-these are teenage mice). Then Sweet Hub left for a soccer game.

As you can guess in less than a half hour the kids and I heard a "SNAP." But to make matters worse we heard the mouse scurrying around in the drawer with the trap. How awful can this get? I didn't want to open the drawer because I would have been completely undone. So we waited for Hub to return home and it turns ou the mouse trap trapped his leg! Oh my gosh!! Sweet Hub took care of it and this morning we awoke to no more caught mice.

Maybe he was the Lone Mouse. I sure hope so!

So next time I think of something I "Don't Have" I'm going to take that thought captive so as not to receive it within a couple of days. Crazy how these things work isn't it?

Story of the World- The Middle Ages

We're studying the Middle Ages through the Story of the World series. This week we learned about Christianity coming to Britain, Augustine, and monks. We mapped out the possible routes Augustine would have taken from Rome to Canterbury and we practiced our calligraphy. Here's some of our oldest son's work...

Seed Science

We've started a science unit on seeds. We're following a unit study from the curriculum Science Through Children's Literature An Integrated Approach by Carol and John Butzow. We read Eric Carle's book The Tiny Seed yesterday and today we're looking at different seeds under the microscope. We started out with lettuce seeds. When looking in the microscope our little girl (4) shouted, "It looks like the giantest cucumber." It's amazing how many ridges are on the seed and how long it appears. It's not noticeable to the naked eye. We also looked at a beet seed. Our middle son described it as a "sand world." When viewing a cabbage seed under the microsope our oldest thought it reminded him of a piece of gold, but then later thought it looked like a "crusty surface like a rice cracker."

The microscope we're using was my hubby's when he was a young kid. It's no wonder it was one of his prize possessions. That little chemist grew up to be a big chemist. By the way, the big chemist just got a new job as an asset economist. We're so proud of him!

A Lesson In Alliteration

We began our school days this week. It's going to be a fun year! The kids are a bit older and the activities we're able to do are going to be challenging and full of learning adventures.
The boys learned about alliteration and wrote their own poem/verse using alliteration. The exercise was full of silliness and laughs and they were both very proud of their finished work.

Our oldest, 9 years old, wrote:
Batman buzzed black bug's back beneath buggy's bath
Batman beat black bug
Batman's bride batted bunnicula beneath Batman's batcave
It was a bunny battle

Our Middle son, 6 years old, wrote:
Green Goblin got goat girl during getaway
God gulped!
God gave goat girl the greatest guarantee
Goat girl gave goblin gum.

A great book for illustration of Alliteration is The B Book.